Pakistan: Bomber kills senior police officer

PESHAWAR, Pakistan 
A suicide bomber attacked a vehicle carrying the head of a paramilitary police force in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing him and two others as the area struggles to recover from more than a week of devastating floods.

Rescue workers frantically tried to extinguish fires that engulfed several cars in the minutes after the attack near a major market in the city of Peshawar, which was wracked by a string of bombings at the end of last year but has been relatively quiet in recent months.

Sifwat Ghayur, the head of the Frontier Constabulary, was killed in the attack along with his driver and bodyguard, said Abdul Rahman Khan, a local police officer. The explosion also injured seven other people, he said.

It was unclear whether the suicide bomber attacked on foot or was in a vehicle, said Khan.

The attack comes as the northwest, which has been plagued by violence at the hands of the Pakistani Taliban, is trying to get back on its feet after heavy monsoon rains a week ago triggered devastating floods that have killed 1,500 people.